Rediscover the City as a Parent

Having a kid reorganizes your priorities, your finances, and often your very internal organs. It can also reframe the way you interact with your city. Sellwood Park was where I played soccer, then it was where I drank beer after dark in high school (sorry, Mom; I hope you’re not reading this), then, suddenly, it was where I taught my children to climb ladder steps on the playground. Wild!

Here’s the thing: Portland is, in many ways, a very kid-friendly city. I had my first two of three babies in Washington, D.C., and the nation’s capital is a tough place to be toting a 1- and 3-year-old everywhere you go. When I moved back home to Portland, I could not believe how family-centric the businesses were. Most restaurants offered crayons and coloring books (Hopworks Brewery, bless it, went way beyond that with a full play area), and even places where I was just running errands, like Les Schwab Tire Center, had a stack of board books in the waiting room. These little touches mean the world to new parents who are relearning how to navigate the world.

Certainly, urban parenting comes with its challenges, too. Stepping over a syringe on the sidewalk hits different when you’re holding the hand of an early walker, and paying a grand a month for preschool is extra painful in a county where the promise of Preschool for All now looks very uncertain.

In this parenting issue of WW, we look at the city through glasses with a little Gerber’s spilled on them. Our offerings include a handy guide to finding your new favorite kindie rocker based on your pre-kid music taste as well as the best playgrounds in town. We check out Mother Made Strength Training in Northeast Portland, led by a physical therapist who understands the aforementioned internal organ rearrangement situation. Finally, we chat with the Rose City Rollers Juniors program about the kid and parent community born from its summer camp.

So get out there! Check out one of the “see and be seen” playgrounds in town, or take in a show at your new rock ’n’ roll time of 10 am on a Wednesday. It might just turn your world upside down again. —Rachel Saslow, Arts & Culture Reporter